Chilled by Death (32 page)

“Good,” Stacy said in a hard voice. “Let him. We have lots of people coming, too.”

There was a long silence. She sighed. “What now?”

She stared at him in the gloomy darkness, the flashlight pointed toward the entrance to help guide the others to the right place. He wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, Kathleen sandwiched between them. After a moment he said, “You do realize that we may have sent out the SOS call to the very person who attacked her in the first place?”

She hesitated, hating the suspicion. The doubts. She knew everyone there. They were close to Royce as well. It was tough to glance at people you’ve known for a long time and wonder if they were trying to kill you.

She whispered, “I know.”

*

Royce watched Stacy
carefully. The last thing he wanted was to have Stacy go off half-cocked and decide she wanted to search for her brother.

His phone jangled in his pocket. He reached down and pulled it out. “Stevie is at the top of the pit.”

“Maybe I should guide him down here,” she said quietly, staring in the direction where the light shone toward the entrance.

“He should be able to find the rope down.” Royce was busy texting him directions. The next text came in. “He found the rope and he heard from Geoffrey. Him and George are boarding together.”

“Thank God.” Stacy could feel some of the tension in her shoulders ease back now that she knew her brother was okay. “Stevie should be here in no time.”

Royce studied Kathleen’s face, hating the pallor. “Damn it, I wish I’d just picked her up and carried her out of here.”

“She’s better off here and being taken out on a stretcher. We’re doing the best we can do for her. The rescuers will be here in minutes.”

“We could have her halfway down to the cabin by now.”

“And cause her more harm in the process. Here we’re warming her as much as we can.”

He knew she was right. The cavalry was on its way. He needed to keep her still and warm. And safe.

The icy floor was starting to creep into his bones. He welcomed it. It kept the raging anger that had heated his blood to the boiling point in check.

There was no point in losing his head. He had to figure this out. It occurred to him that someone just might be picking them off one by one.

He knew that the biggest group of suspects was his own friend group. That choked him, but he was trying to stay cool and collected. There were many people who knew the group was staying here. And many more that were finding out every day. That opened up the suspect pool.

“What are you thinking?” Stacy asked.

“Trying to figure out who did this. And why.”

“The why is particularly disturbing,” Stacy said. “I can’t see that all of us could possibly have done something to piss one person off.”

He gazed at her. “It wouldn’t have to be all of us involved. I’m not sure this person cares about there being roadkill. People that got in the way would be secondary. Like in the drugging.”

“You think it was the same person?”

His lopsided grin slipped out. “Could you imagine that we’ve pissed off more than one person during the last while?”

“Not likely.”

“Then again…” Royce frowned. “I’m trying to remember if there was any major dissension about this trip. Some people weren’t impressed that you were coming. The timing was also an issue.”

Stacy gasped. “Really? I could have stayed behind.”

“No,” he said sharply. “Don’t ever think that. The concerns were more that you might be depressing to the group if you weren’t handling life well on your first time back.”

Even in the dim light, he saw the wince ripple across her face. He was sorry for that, but they needed to get to the bottom of the truth here.

“That’s fair,” she said quietly. “Was anyone very upset?”

“No. Not at all.”

“What about ex-girlfriends?” she asked, her voice hesitant.

“None serious for a very long time. None casual for a long time,” he said, not even attempting to hold back the humor. “After tasting moonlight, there was no going back to the regular fare.”

And her smile lit up the cavern. He opened his mouth to say something when a shout sounded at the mouth of the tunnel.

“We’re here,” Royce called out.

Stacy hopped to her feet and ran in the direction of the noise before he had a chance to stop her.

Then he heard Stevie’s voice and knew it was all fine.

*

Really? More shit
happening that wasn’t supposed to happen. Jesus. His heart pounded, his hands were sweaty, and he knew he was in serious danger of spending the rest of his life behind bars.

Shit. Shit.
Shit.

He couldn’t think.

He had to act. Had to find a way out.

Kathleen was to blame. First she saw him in the kitchen, then she said something to George in front of him about him playing with the wine bottles. Like what the hell? Now he had to deal with both of them. They’d found Kathleen already. Unbelievable. That wasn’t supposed to happen. She was supposed to be dead.

Dead people didn’t talk.

He’d gone to try and find George. Make sure he plugged that hole. Surely she’d have been fine here for a few moments. Like how long had he been gone? Forty minutes max. He swore it wasn’t longer. Surely not.

Just long enough for that meddling bitch and her stud to get in the way. How the hell had they found his secret place? What could he have possibly done wrong?

Now it didn’t matter, damn it. Unless Kathleen died. He brightened. That was the trick. She needed to die. For real this time.

Except considering the number of people here trying to help her, he wasn’t going to get close enough to finish the job. He had to hope that Mother Nature had already done the damage for him.

S
tacy rushed toward
the voice. “Hello? Hello?” she cried out. There was Stevie. “There you are.”

She rushed into his arms, so damn happy that help had arrived.

“Easy, easy. I’m here.”

“Oh thank God.” She stepped back and smiled up at him. “Where are the others? She needs to get to the hospital now.”

“Is she hurt?” he asked, splaying the flashlight behind her.

“A head wound,” she said. Looking behind, she frowned and repeated, “Where are the others?”

“I couldn’t find anyone else,” he said. “I came and hoped the others would follow as they came in.”

“Oh no.” She ran out to the crevasse and stared up at the waning sun. “Surely they’d be at the cabin by now?”

“They should be there soon,” he said, worry in his tone. “But even Kevin went back for a couple more runs.”

“Hell,” she turned. “Come on, she’s not doing well at all.” She led the way back to Royce. “Where is the search and rescue team?” she fretted. “I called it in myself.”

“They’ll be here,” Stevie said. “You know they are reliable.”

“Unless someone called it off,” she snapped darkly. “Kathleen has been hit in the head. She didn’t do it to herself.”

“Whoa, what?”

She spun around, slipped, and almost went down. Stevie reached out and caught her before she hit the ground, but her knee still wrenched as she tried to save herself. “Take it easy. We don’t need another accident.”

“No.” She straightened slowly and winced. “I twisted my knee.”

“Badly?”

“No.” She tested her weight, limping forward gingerly. “I think it will be fine. But Kathleen is unconscious.”

“What is she doing in here?” He looked around as they slowly made their way forward. “And what is this place?”

“No idea. I thought I saw something like this on the waterfall pictures I took. As we’re beside the same area, maybe there are a series of tunnels connected inside.”

“Good Lord. If it wasn’t for the circumstances, this would be a really cool find.”

“Cool is not the word I’d use,” she muttered. “But the temperature is definitely working against us at the moment.”

She pulled her phone out and turned it on, hoping to see a text from someone. There was nothing. “Damn it, where is everyone?”

“Royce,” she called out. “You there?”

There was a faint echo all around. She hated the fear sitting on the edge of her nerves. She didn’t dare move faster. “Are you lost?” Stevie asked. “Surely you didn’t go too deep into this place on the off chance someone was in here.”

There was so much disapproval in his voice, she sighed. “I thought I heard something so we ventured inside.” She headed down the right passageway. “Royce?”

She wanted to run, but her knee was hurting and complaining. She made it another twenty steps forward and called out again. “Royce.”

This time she thought she heard something. She moved faster. And sure enough, there was Royce on the ground ahead of her.

She dropped to the ground beside him. “How is she?”

He shook his head. “Worse. We need her out of here.”

Stevie took one look and opened his bag, tossing down thermal heater blankets. Stacy opened it up and with Royce’s help, they bundled Kathleen into it. With the second blanket he’d brought, they repeated the action. Having removed the coats they’d covered her with, Stacy snagged up hers and put it on. Instantly her body warmed. Royce put his on, then bent and lifted Kathleen into his arms.

“Are you—”

“She needs to move. If they aren’t here, we have to get her there.”

“Lead the way, Stacy.”

She snorted. “Really? I almost got us lost finding you.”

He grinned. “I wondered what took you so long.”

She smiled and headed back toward the front entrance.

The light changed the closer they got to the outside. Instead of bright light, there was only a muted glow.

“Shit.” She ran to the edge to find a wall of snow piled in front.

As the three stared, they realized what had happened. And that this was likely why the others hadn’t come inside. “The snow from that tree must have fallen,” she exclaimed. “And remember the pile on the ledge?”

“Yeah. Shitty timing.”

While Royce held Kathleen in his arms, Stevie and Stacy started kicking away the snow. Stevie had his little shovel out, and they managed to punch through enough for them to see outside where the search and rescue team was waiting, having no idea where they were supposed to be.

Stacy called out, “We’re here.”

A round of cheers went up.

*